A History of Kents Bank

A History of Kents Bank. Kents Bank lies to the west of Grange over Sands and until the middle of the 19th century it comprised a few buildings on the shore where the cross bay route across Morecambe Bay met the land. Abbot Hall and Kents Bank House, then known as Kents Bank Hotel which was operating as a lodging house, stood on opposite sides of the road at the base of the hill now known as Kirkhead Road. A railway station had opened in August 1857 on the "Ulverstone to Lancaster" railway running along the edge of the shore. Part way up the hill on Kirkhead Road was Laneside Farm. Further along the coast, towards Grange, Guides Farm sat on the shore at the bottom of the road now known as Carter Road. Seawood House was above Guide Farm at the top of the steep hill with access from Carter Road. The two roads climbed northwards up the hill to join the main road linking Grange with Flookburgh. Kentsford Road, the connecting road between Kirkhead Road and Carter Road, did not exist. The land between Kirkhead Road, Carter Road and Allithwaite Road was farmland. Mary Lambert – Landowner. Mary Winfield Lambert owned all the land and buildings around Kirkhead Road including Laneside Farm which was the base for the agricultural operations on the land in Kents Bank. On her death in 1857 Mary Winfield Lambert lived at Boarbank House, Allithwaite. Miss Lambert’s estate stretching from Boarbank Hall in Allithwaite to Abbot Hall in Kents Bank was sold by auction in August 1858 to ‘capitalists from Manchester, Bury and Whitehaven’ (Westmorland Gazette Aug 28 1858). At the auction Mr Tulk of Whitehaven purchased Abbot Hall and 10 acres of land (£1510) and Kirkhead (£1310) with 54 acres of land and James Simpson Young of Salford purchased Laneside Farm (£5000) with 69 acres of agricultural land and Kents Bank Hotel (£1140) with 5 acres of land. James Young – Landowner & Industrialist. Boarbank Hall circa 2010 James Simpson Young was the son of James Simpson I’s sister, Jane (or Jean) who was born in Methven, Perthshire 2.6.1770/1. She married James Young of Methven on 5 August 1802. They had at least two children, Mary (Marion?) and James Simpson Young who was born 31.5.1818 at Lennox Town, Stirling. Lennox Town was home to a large calico printing industry. Calico is a type of cloth, heavier than linen and made of cotton. A calico printer drew a pattern on paper, as wide as the cloth. The pattern was divided up into squares about 8 inches by 12 inches and cut into wooden blocks. The cloth was laid on a table and the blocks covered in dye and placed on the calico to make the print. James Simpson I of Foxhill Bank, Oswaldtwistle who had made a large amount of money in the calico printing business retired from Foxhill Bank Printworks in 1830 and let the business to Thomas Coates & Co. of Pendleton. However by 1838 the business was back with the family and a partnership was formed called Simpson Rostron & Co. calico printers and appears as such in Slater’s Directory. The partnership consisted of Thomas Simpson (nephew of James Simpson I who is said to have returned from America to where his father, William Simpson, James Simpson I’s elder brother had emigrated), Lawrence Rostron (James Simpson I’s son-in-law), James Simpson Young, and William Gregory Langdon, the last of whom looked after the marketing end of the business in Manchester (Blackburn Standard 30 October 1844). In 1840 Thomas Simpson of Foxhill Bank became the owner of the Broadfield Colliery in Oswaldtwistle. James Simpson Young joined him in this enterprise and the firm became known as Simpson and Young. It became one of the biggest employers in the district with a coal depot at Knuzden Brook and tramways from their collieries at Bank Moor to Knuzden and from Broadfield to the Moscow Mills of the Walmsley family and to the Foxhill Bank Print Works. By the 1841 census we find James Simpson Young at New Brighton, Wallasey a fashionable seaside resort on the Wirral, in the company of Edward Phillips, Charles Buchanan (first cousin from America? He could be the son of Mary Simpson b.1781 who married William Buchanan of New York), Marion Young (probably his sister) and James Simpson (more likely to be his cousin James Simpson II, later first President of the Vegetarian Society than his father, James Simpson I, even though the latter is not at home at Foxhill Bank Hall in the Census). They are all described as being of independent means and no relationships are given in the census. James Simpson I died at Foxhill Bank aged 71 in 1847 and left a will in which the legacies and annuities alone amounted to at least £110,000 besides the uncalculated balance of his estates which passed to his younger son, James II. James I’s sister Jane Young received £52 plus the income from all his property in Methven for life, and her son James Simpson Young received a legacy of £1,500 payable in 1859 (which was the same as his cousin Thomas Simpson). James Simpson Young married firstly on 10.2.1846 at Bowden, Cheshire, Betty Rostron (1827-1853) eldest daughter of Richard Rostron, Brazil Merchant, the first cousin of Lawrence Rostron (his partner in the calico printing business and husband of James Simpson Young’s first cousin Mary) and his wife, Susanna nee Riley. They had five children before she died in childbirth on 22.11.1853 at Bowden. They appear in the 1851 census living at 10 Leaf Square, Pendleton, Salford (where Betty appears as Rosina?) and he is described as a calico printer/coal miner employing 1000. Abbot Hall, Kents Bank circa 1930 The children were: 1. Richard Rostron b. 25 November 1846 at Pendleton. He became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Highlanders. He died at Ashton Grange, Annan, Dumfriesshire on 29 May 1908 and was interred in the cemetery there. A plaque is displayed in Allithwaite Church, placed there by his widow and son. 2. James Henry b.1848 Pendleton 3. George b.1851 Pendleton 4. John Edward b.1852 (birth registered in Altrincham, so probably Bowden). He died suddenly aged 39 at Hampton Court on 20.8.1891. 5. William Simpson b.19.11.1853 at Bowden, Cheshire. His mother Betty died three days later. James Simpson Young 2nd marriage was to Alice Ann Riley on 10.12.1857 at St. Ann’s, Turton. She was the only daughter of Richard Riley a cotton spinner of Preston (and probably first cousin to his first wife). She was baptized 17.12.1828 at St. John’s, Preston, the daughter of Richard Riley and Betsey (probably Betty Rostron b.20.3.1794 at Ramsbottom who married Richard Riley on 30.11.1825 at St. Mary the Virgin, Bury) James Simpson Young & Alice Ann went on to have twelve children: 6. Edwin b.1859 at Altrincham (Bowden). Died 1882 in a night-time boating accident on Morecombe Bay and was buried at Cartmel aged 23 with his friend and neighbour Herbert Elliot. Both families lived at Lyndock Villas, Kents Bank. James Simpson Young and his family then moved to Kents Bank on the Cartmel Peninsula which according to the Westmorland Gazette for 28 August 1858 had been bought by “capitalists from Manchester, Bury and Whitehaven”. This was the sale of the estate owned by Mary Winfield Lambert and sold after her death in 1857. One of the capitalists was James Simpson Young of Salford who purchased Laneside Farm for £5,000 with 69 acres and Kents Bank Hotel with 5 acres for £1140. Within a short period he had bought out his fellow capitalists and so also became the owner of Abbot Hall and the surrounding agricultural land and buildings, giving him all the original estate owned by Mary Winfield Lambert. By 1861 cousin Laurence Rostron was dead as was James Simpson II. Cousin Thomas Simpson had retired from the calico printing business to concentrate on the coal mining industry into which he eventually brought his son, William Walmsley Simpson. It was not surprising that James Simpson Young appears to have also retired at this point. 7. Jane Simpson b.1860 at Kents Bank. 8. Charles Septimus b.1861 at Kents Bank. He died aged 9 months and is buried at Cartmel. In the 1861 census James Simpson Young and Alice Ann were living at Abbot Hall, Kents Bank, he describes himself as a landowner and they have 5 servants with them. Two of the sons of his first marriage are boarders at Cartmel Grammar School. 9. Thomas Simpson b.1862 Kents Bank. He married aged 30 at St. Leonard’s, Balderstone, Lancs on 5 July 1893 when he was a Lt. 3rd Madras Lancers (bachelor of the Fielden Arms Hotel) his second cousin Marion Susannah Simpson aged 41, daughter of the late Thomas Simpson and his wife Ellen (Walmsley) who had been James Simpson Young’s former partner and first cousin. She was living with her sister, Anna Adelaide Baynes at Salmesbury Old Hall. The witnesses were Mary Louisa Simpson (bride’s sister), Richard Parker Young (eldest brother of groom although his name is Richard Rostron Young?), Fred Baynes (bride’s brother-in-law), Frank T. Young (groom’s brother, Frank F. Young?). By 1911 they are living at Broughton Hall in the Cartmel Valley and Thomas is described as a pensioned major, Indian Army.One of the witnesses, Mary Louisa Simpson, settled in Kents Bank.

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